A model for developing a decision support system to simulate national drug policy indicators

To help save lives and improve human health, it is crucial for policy makers to ensure equity in access to drugs, drug efficacy, quality and safety, and rational use of drugs, which are indicators of the National Drug Policy (NDP) in evaluation of pharmaceutical system performance in every country. There are some retrospective evaluation methods that are currently used to appraise the success of NDP and adherence to its objectives in the relevant countries. Nikfar et al. (2005) for the first time designed a weighted questionnaire system by a nominal group technique based on the answers to the questions for adding a single drug to the National Drug List (NDL). They found that although the system, structures, and mechanisms are in place, they do not function properly in some topics. Assessment of 59 dossiers of approved drugs for adding to the NDL during a 5-year period showed that decision makers pay more attention to efficacy, safety, and rationality in use rather than accessibility and affordability. Nikfar et al. (2005) concluded that every country must establish a survey system to check implementation of the processes to achieve the NDP's objectives of better protection of public health and equal access to pharmaceuticals [1]. Our belief is that the problem is still there and has not been resolved yet by the national drug authority (NDA) and the objectives of national drug policies (NDP) have not been met yet [2]. Adding or deleting medicines from the essential lists, establishing national formularies, registering the health professionals, facilities and goods, financial interventions, pricing and reimbursement, supervising the supply chain, pharmacovigilance, regulating advertising, and promoting rational drug use are some of the daily decisions that are made by NDAs. On the other hand, some factors in the market such as product specifications, prices, supply system and promotion affect the decisions. Furthermore, the cost of drugs is a hurdle for utilization as despite availability it affects accessibility [3-5]. These mixed variables complicate decisions that are needed to be made even in uncertain conditions. The NDAs usually cannot predict and Corresponding author: Prof. Mohammad Abdollahi Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center Faculty of Pharmacy Tehran University of Medical Sciences Tehran, Iran E-mail: mohammad.abdollahi@ utoronto.ca Editorial